Why Custom POIs?

Mon, 06/30/2008 - 2:35pm

karl1coleman

8 years

I got a nuvi 200w 2 weeks ago. And I've always wondered why the need for custom POIs when my unit came with 6 million? Well, my question was answered twice this past weekend on my first long trip with it going from Ohio to Tennessee.

Between Mansfield and Columbus my wife wanted to find a Burger King because she likes their coffee. I looked one up under POIs and found one a couple exits ahead. On the next exit what do I see? A Burger King that wasn't in the POIs.

Later between Cincinnati and Lexington we decide it's time for dinner. Looking for something and nothing good comes up. Nothing really for another 40+ miles. So I plug in an Applebee's about 45 minutes ahead. In about 5 minutes we see a Cracker Barrel as we zip past it. That would've been nice. I recheck the POIs again. Nope. That one's not in there either.

Yes. I have learned why custom POIs exist. I am convinced. This is a great site BTW. Thought so before the weekend.

The only real disappointment was going to the picnic we were down there for. It was at Standing Stone State Park. And we were not provided directions. The GPS took us to what I believe was the west entrance to the park. Unfortunately, the picnic was very near the east entrance off route 52. Normally I wouldn't have minded but the road through the park was so windy and steep at times I couldn't enjoy the scenery. I'm not sure how something like that could be better. Even if there were two sets of coordinates, one for each entrance, you would still have no idea which one to pick. I guess without directions we did the best we could. We eventually found the picnic, albeit via the long way, though everyone else, all without directions, seemed to know to come in the east entrance.

But . . .

reporting locations that aren't listed... Can you provide the locations of the missing locations?

He's reporting locations that are missing from the built-in POIs, not custom POI files.

--Nuvi 660 -- and not upgrading it or maps until Garmin fixes long-standing bugs/problems, and get maps to where they are much more current, AND corrected on a more timely basis when advised of mistakes.

Nuvi 200?

Roll your own

The next time you make a trip like that one, make your own custom POI before you leave. You can use a tool like Google Earth to find the EXACT entrance, then get the EXACT latitude and longitude of that entrance, and roll your own POI. You'll be amazed how accurate Google Earth is, and how accurately your GPSr will get you there.

Yes....

plunder wrote:

The next time you make a trip like that one, make your own custom POI before you leave. You can use a tool like Google Earth to find the EXACT entrance, then get the EXACT latitude and longitude of that entrance, and roll your own POI. You'll be amazed how accurate Google Earth is, and how accurately your GPSr will get you there.

Using an alternate mapping product like Google Earth or MapSource where you can either create a Waypoint or obtain the coordinates to save as a favorite in the GPS is a more positive way to end up where you plan to.